The IIJ's Travel Journal

Will newspapers become luxurious items in future?

“Will print media disappear in future?” was the only hot debate that happened in almost every assignment which the IIJ participants had during their 7 days study tour in which they visited Germany’s electronic, print and online media publications in eight different cities of Deutschland.

Now the interesting thing is that this was the question which never came in my mind before, maybe because of where I live (Pakistan) the majority of people are still big fans of newspapers and those who are not big fans of print, have to read it because they have no other choice because we are still not advanced in technology.

So guys, for me this is still not an issue but something is steering among the German’s print media publications and that is the fear of disappearance of print publications.

I will not let you bored by writing word to word statements of the fearful German’s print media publications but let me just inform you that most of them were like “No No No No, the print will not go into extinction and there is no media form that has managed to kill off another etc (huh even they do not look confident by giving this statement).

Interesting point, those who favored print media have also have online websites for their publications but because most of their income still comes from their print publications so that means they are still dependent of their print publication so while saying “print will never die out” they do look scared but they do not have any other choice but to favor their source of income.

Okay I think its enough of lecturing, let me just come to the point before you stop reading my blog entry, I want to quote a statement given by Stern’s iPad project manager David Heimburger he said “there were time when horses were used for transportation and they were very useful in past but now its hard to find any one who use horse for transportation but in fact they now become a luxurious items”.

He continues saying that “newspapers, now a days, are very common but in future, they will not vanished but will become luxurious like horses”.

I do not know whether it is good thing to say “print media will be vanished” and i do not know too how you think about that, but I find David Heimburger’s statement quite convincing instead of those who totally disagree by saying it always remain like this because the way technology is moving from print to online, it will make Newspapers a luxurious items in future.

P.S

Abbas Mushtaq

Panorama photos on IIJ's study tour created by iPhone

Even though the 2 megapixel built-in camera isn’t the high quality but I really enjoy to use my iPhone to take quick photos. One of my new favorite apps is Superama, which lets you take seamless panoramic photos through the iPhone’s native camera.

Here are some quick examples that I took on our great study tour. The images are sized down to 1000 wide, but are originally 4000 - 6000 pixels wide.

You can also check out some of my pictures here (My Facebook) which are fun to look at.

Thank you very much,

Photo by Cuong Pham.

The many faces of media consumption

Everywhere one turn to on a daily basis you see the different method of news consumption, but the most impactful one on every media organisation be it Print, TV, radio etc is the mobile method of consumption. This form of consuming news has made every news organisation to sit up in order to retain their loyal followers.  "It is important for our future as a public broadcaster to have the acceptance of younger people. We have to fight for our younger audience" says Jorg Sadrozinski, the Editor-in-Chief of tagesschau.de. In 1996, tagesschau went online with Tagesschau.de , the online version of Tagesschau in order to cater for this new trend of news consumption. It is noted that the under 30 age group are deeply involve in the usage of mobile devices and the convergence between Tv and the internet could no longer be ignored. These poses a great challenges for the public broadcasters as well as the private broadcasters and the publishing houses. ARD disseminates its information using four different mediums: the TV, radio, Internet and the mobile platform. This is a strategy to keep their views updated every minutes." It is key to be where your audience wants you to be" says Jorg. ARD, the producers of Tagesschau which is the oldest and highest rated current affairs show on television. Tagesschau had its first show in December 1952 and has between 9 - 12 million viewers currently. It is a religious rite that is performed by every family in Germany every night by 8pm. it is the oldest tradition in Germany. ARD prides itself as the custodian of this long tradition and all that is required will be done to keep it so. With ARD, it is not about the clicks but the news. The trends going on with news dissemintaion across platforms is fast pacing and keeping everyone on their toes. It is no longer the producers of the news that determines how the news will be disseminated but the consumers. With the invention of the Ipads, netbooks, smart phones, Iphones, it is glaring the world is going mobile and the news have to follow it. Some believe that the newspaper will not disappeared and the TV programmes will always be there because it is visual, while others believe that mobile is the new newspaper, magazines and Tv.  Will it remain this way? and for how long? That remains the question to be answered. By Funmi Ajala

 

Stern.de a twinkling star in Germany’s media industry

By Cuong Pham and Abbas Mushtaq

It was the 16 of July, when participants from International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) visited the office of Stern.de located in Hamburg. The IIJ participants were welcomed warmly by Florian Guessgen, the head of political section and Katrina, the head of social media section of Stern.de who later gave detailed presentation about their online website.

While talking to the participants Florian said that Stern.de is one of oldest news online site in Germany which established in 1995 and is structured according to the usual section like politics, sports, health, entertainment and others, which makes it a pretty traditional news website in Germany.

Florian informed that currently there are 70 people working for the online publication among which 40 of them are journalists and the rest are technical staff and business developers.

“We have about 21 million visits per month that’s about 200 million page impressions” said Florian, added that in market position they are in fourth in Germany whereas in term of total visits to their website, they rank 6^th.

He said that stern online edition is unique from other online websites because one can find not only news on their site but also there are other sections that shape the face of the site.

“Stern is a very important brand of Germany’s media which has a major print office and an online magazine and both of them are working independently” he underlined

Florian continue saying that the basic idea of online business is to be as fast as you can “if you want to succeed in online business then you need to publish breaking news as fast as possible” he suggested also said that stern.de is updated on minute basis to make their users up to date on every single issue.

He also said that there is a major difference between magazine and the theme and business of online journalism and that’s what they are dealing with which makes it very interesting also challenging because the journalist use to work long times whereas online journalist like them needs to act fast.

Answering a question about the content of the website Florian said that most of their content of the website is taken from the news agencies but at the same time they also have foreign correspondents in different countries who write for their site.

The stern.de also using social media networks like facebook and twitter to promote their publication and to get new ideas from their users.

Meanwhile, Katrina, the head of social media department described to IIJ participants how they use social media networks.

“We start to work with facebook one year ago and today there are about 10,960 fans of stern on facebook and 17,730 followers.on twitter whereas in only June, 2010 there were about 76,000 visitors that came from facebook and twitter to stern.de” she described.

She said that there are three reason why they started using facebook “first we want to reach new group of users which means young people or people who did not know about stern now they can find them on facebook, secondly facebook is used to distribute our content and the third usage is to communicate with our users” she elaborates.

She said that the opinion is important in journalistic point of view so they are getting new ideas from their users to see what they expect from them.

She also informed that there are 6 or 7 posting a day, the first post is a good morning post and then they choose the important topics of the day which they post on their facebook page.

After the presentation the IIJ participants were showed the news desk and also the studio of stern.de which they use to shoot different shows for their online publication.

Eight Cities in Seven Days. Simply breathtaking. ---- Segun Adeoye

When print and online go hand in hand

By: Judith Kaberia & Rahmon Amri

 

“We are friendly. You can go anywhere you like, you are free to take pictures,” this how Florian Schroeder welcomes us to Westfaelische-Nachrichten on July 14, 2010.

Mr Schroeder, who works in the online department of the Munster-based regional media house, is very excited to receive international journalists from nine different nations. He is more than willing to answer all our questions but at the same time quite interested in knowing what we do for our media houses.

The interesting part is how his media house has intertwined online and print version to give each of them a fresh look to make it more attractive for their readers. This is done through the implementation of the so-called ‘online first’ principle, in which the media house uses the online version to publish stories not appearing on the print version.

Having been online since 2007, Mr Schroeder confidently says, “The future of print is not dead.” He explains that circulation of their newspapers has remained almost the same despite having an online version. However, he believes that the print media has to work harder and become more innovative to pace up with the online media.

In the case of Westfaelische Nachrichten, the print version has more explanations or details - additional to the stories appearing online whereas online is frequently updated but with a shorter version of the stories giving each of the two distinctive features that attract readers.

To attest to this, Westafaelische Nachrichten has a circulation of about 250,000 newspaper copies and 40,000 online readers each day. In order to maintain and increase the readership, the media house is also providing the mobile application service to access their newspaper on mobile devices.

Westfaelische Nachrichten has employed 100 editors and 400 freelancers. The online editors work in shifts with different tasks from 07.00 to 22.00. In the meantime, the freelancers—whose working hours are more flexible—are paid based on the number of stories they write.

The media house conducts three conferences a day, at 11.00, 15.00, and 18.30, attended by 15 editors, including three to four online editors. In the morning conference the editors discuss general issues, including what is right and what is needed to improve in the newspaper.

They monitor how issues develop in the afternoon conference, and eventually come up with the definitive decision on what stories will be published for tomorrow’s edition.

 

 

Seven Days On Multimedia and Online Study Tour

Personally, I want to say all of the appointment are very inspiring. Since the first meeting with Hardy Prothmann (Heddesheim blog.de) in his nice and warm house, Monday (12/7).

 

As a well known blogger, he is humble to discuss and answer the question from us. Prothmann shared information about creating news blog since last year, how the social media helps number of audience through twitter and facebook. Around 20-25 percent hits of the blog comes from twitter and facebook. Waw!

The importance of link with others blog as well as archive function. His own perspective that journalism is subjective . Due to see the things through eyes. In the end of meeting, Prothmann asked us to taste pretzel (kind of bread which is famous in Heidelberg and Heddesheim). Thank you.

 

And after that, group picture. And as we can see, our picture now is in Heddesheimblog.de. Isn’t it nice,friends?

 

 

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Munster is the nicest place that we visited (Wednesday,14/7). The accommodation Hotel Treff , makes me don’t wanna wake up early in the morning. Comfortable. David (friends from Kenya) said, his bed rotating.

 

When we visited Westfalische- Nachrichten (WN) Newspapers and WN de, Munster make me fall in love more. Due to warmest welcome from the journalist. Two hours passed so fast, and I got lots of information from them.

 

Open conversation and sharing each other makes the meeting very interesting. We even know, how the internet stuck for a while in there. And we agree it could be happened in every newsroom once in a while. Here, I amazed with the newsroom facility such as two monitor computer per editor, and big screen monitor in the middle of newsroom .

 

And I believe good facilities helps journalist duties. WN is the regional daily newspaper with the widest circulation in Munster and surrounding areas. 95 percent subscribers.

 

And I found this great facilities similar in WAZ media group (third largest newspaper and magazine publisher in Germany) in Essen. We met with Katrin Scheib, managing editor for the online section. Total of over 500 publications WAZ media group, across nine additional countries; such as Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania.

 

Both media houses believes, print media and online can’t be separated. They integrated. And I think, this is the convergence media happened. As I can see, during the conference in WN around 11 am. There are 15 editors sit on round table. Four of them from online section. They are all discuss about what will be the next news in an hour, two hour later and soon. As well as for articles in newspaper.

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We had something interesting in Tageschau studio, Hamburg. Most of us, taking pictures as a news anchor. And the qutest things we’ve done, is taking picture with the blue blanket covered body. And because of the background is blue too, so that we only see the head in the TV monitor. Horror… haha..

In 2012, Tageschau TV will have news studio with some new technology equipment. For instance, touchscreen television as we can see in World Cup 2010 programme, a few weeks ago.

 

Tageschau is the most widely watched evening news programme in Germany, with approximately 10 million viewers. With a market share of approximately 33% for its 8 pm broadcast.

For the rest, we visited WAN-IFRA (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers) in Darmstad as a global organization of world newspaper and news publisher explaining about ideal newsroom. Unfortunately, the repsentative from Paris has not joined the conference with us.

 

In Bochum, we met Stefan Laurin, one of creator of the regional blog for North Rhine Westphalia “Ruhrbarone” (Rurh baron). Amazing, he claimed 10000 viewers per day on this blog. 30-40 % viewers coming from google search. He says, strong and fare discussion will gain more visitor.

In Hamburg, we also had an appoinment with Kulow Kommunikation as a public relations agency for facebook in Germany. Xalmineto web services agency and Der Stern or The Star news magazine which has been developing the e-magazine since April 2009. We also took group picture for the last appointment. Vielen Dank

 

Martha W Silaban

Neglect social media at your own peril

 

By Golden Maunganidze

 Having visited different media houses, talked to veteran journalists and reputable bloggers in various Germany cities last week, I was left with a conclusion that modern media houses must either use social media networks to remain effective in communicating with their audiences or risk becoming toothless.

Before the tour, I thought the use of social media like twitter, facebook, and skype among others is an optional and only used by extremists in the media fraternity but however, though experts were differing in one way or another, they all agreed on one thing – the use of social media.

“I use facebook to popularise my blog” or “I use twitter to share my views” and “We started to use social media to become close to our readers or viewers” became popular choruses throughout the study tour.

From Heidelberg to Hamburg, they all agreed that the use of social media should not be optional for any media house or bloggers who are serious in delivering news to readers.

Hardy Prothmann of the popular Heddesheim blog is undoubtedly one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Germany. In explaining the recipe to come up with an effective blog, Prothmann said social media help a lot for any serious journalist to communicate with audience of various social standings.

“About 25 percent of the people who read my blogs everyday come via facebook or twitter. I use the social media to drive traffic to my blog. At times I just post funny headlines on facebook like ‘this is for young people’ and I will be sure that even adults will visit my blog,” Prothmann explained.

Though Stefan Laurin of the Ruhrbarone blog in Bochum said they are blogging for fun and reputation building, he said they are already using social media.

Der Westen (The West)- a website for Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) is a best example of a media house which uses both print and online media effectively. They are running both print and online parallel to each other but like any other media house, WAZ Managing Editor Katrin Scheib pointed out that her organisation uses social media to reach many people and provoke debate among readers.

The Tagesschau television station’s Editor In Chief Jorg Sadrozinski said the key is to “be where your audience wants you to be.”  He explained that his organisation is using social media to reach the youths.

Sadrozinski said their secret to success is in their ability to go multimedia and to adapt to the changing media consumer habits of the youth.

“We use different social media networks to reach different people. This has helped us to effectively communicate with people of all levels,” he said.

In fact, our visit to all media houses pointed out to one thing – social media is reality. I learnt that even though the use of social media is not very high in some developing countries, this is the time for newsrooms and journalists to effectively engage social media networks in information dissemination.

It is not a must, no one is compelled to use these networks but I think those who don’t move with the time risk to become toothless bulldogs thereby automatically converting themselves into museums sooner or later.

On the way to Weimar

This is the first video clip that was shot in the bus.

By Funmi Ajala

Can the tablet save the media?

It is easier to believe that the media industry may collapse than to join a small group of optimists banking on a tablet device. 

The industry is evidently between a rock and a hard place. 

On the one hand, the profit margins are shrinking every year and on the other, the news media has to sustain its dwindling readership by offering free online content. 

The market is harsh: break the free content rule and face the negative consequences. Media companies that have erected paywalls are now struggling with ways to keep their disappointed readers.

So, will the ‘tablet revolution’ save the industry?

For Der Stern, Germany’s most successful weekly news magazine, the iPad presents a breakthrough in these troubled times. Stern’s iPad project manager David Heimburger believes the company’s innovation of the e-magazine is the new business model for the tablet.

“Raising the paywall has to be done in a new way. We have to get out of the web browser,” he says.

Heimburger and his team have developed a model for content to be viewed on the WePad and tablet computers such as Apple’s iPad. The price per electronic edition will be between 2.60 and 3 euros. The use of vivid pictures, video and interactive graphics will be the e-magazine’s strengths. 

Few other industry experts have placed their hopes on the lean-back, touch screen experience that the iPad offers.

The father of the UK Guardian’s iPhone application, John-Henry Braca, recently told a journal of the World Editor’s Forum, World Media Trends 2010, that the iPad may bring back "the element of discovery in newspaper reading". The journal says that with the full-colour images and eye-catching illustrations, magazines and newspapers could convince readers that the tablet is the best way to access their content.

But what happens to the good old newspaper after the ‘tablet revolution’? Heimburger predicts low usage of the print media in 50 years “just like it happened to the horse carts”.

“The newspaper won’t disappear but will become luxurious,” he says.

By David Cheruiyot